The next
time you have the opportunity to make a stock sale take an assignment
from a magazine or publishing conglomerate, consider the information
below as a negotiating tool. We've all heard it said: "We don't make
money off our web version," "We don't have that kind of money, this
is editorial" and "The economy is slowing down." The following updates
might give you some perspective on how profits on one side of the
table are increasing, while the other side stays flat or even declines
with the effect of inflation (guess which side photograhers are on).
The following
updates, written by EP president Seth Resnick and VP Paula Lerner,
are passed along with permission.
Are magazine
profits up or down? The magical answer to this simple question seems
to differ widely depending on who you ask. Just when we were told
that the dot.com crash has dramatically impacted profits a report
surfaces that seems to point to the opposite.
The Publishers
Information Bureau and the Audit Bureau of Circulations released figures
for 2000. Please check out the following Business Magazines:
FORTUNE
paid circulation of 833,591 with 6,259 pages of ads in 2000. Ad pages
were up 38 percent over 1999. The circulation was up 6 percent over
1999. Total ad dollars spent in 2000 = $476,000,000 up a whopping
47 percent over 1999. The photographic fee stays the same.
FAST
COMPANY paid circulation of 538,261 with 2,126 pages of ads in 2000.
Ad pages were up 26 percent over 1999. The circulation was up 65 percent
over 1999. Total ad dollars spent in 2000 = $77,000,000 up a whopping
105 percent over 1999. The photographic fee stays the same.
BUSINESS
2.0 paid circulation of 254,978 with 3,749 pages of ads in 2000. Ad
pages were up 183 percent over 1999. The circulation was up 35 percent
over 1999. Total ad dollars spent in 2000 = $93,000,000 up a whopping
379 percent over 1999. The photographic fee stays the same.
UPSIDE
paid circulation of 248,041 with 1,553 pages of ads in 2000. Ad pages
were up 56 percent over 1999. The circulation was up 49 percent over
1999. Total ad dollars spent in 2000 = $32,000,000 up a whopping 91
percent over 1999. The photographic fee stays the same.
RED HERRING
paid circulation of 243,695 with 3,357 pages of ads in 2000. Ad pages
were up 138 percent over 1999. The circulation was up 109 percent
over 1999. Total ad dollars spent in 2000 = $87,000,000 up a whopping
307 percent over 1999. The photographic fee stays the same.
THE INDUSTRY
STANDARD paid circulation of 165,001 with 7,424 pages of ads in 2000.
Ad pages were up 145 percent over 1999. The circulation was up NA
percent over 1999. Total ad dollars spent in 2000 = $95,000,000 up
a whopping 203 percent over 1999. The photographic fee stays the same.
Next
time any of these publications cry hardship let them know that they
made an average of 188.66 percent increase in their profits in one
year. We have not gained this in twenty years.
Best,
Seth
Now,
more of the same from Paula Lerner:
For anyone
who has any doubts that 2000 wasn't a banner year for magazine ad
profits, please check out the following (thanks to an EP subscriber
for passing this on):
http://www.magazine.org/news/press_releases/000000_latest_pib.html
The headline
is:
MAGAZINE ADVERTISING REVENUES CLOSE THE YEAR 2000 AT A RECORD $17.7
BILLION. Revenue Up 14% Over 1999, Highest Year-End Growth Increase
Since 1985
Some
highlights are as follows:
Revenues
from sales of ad pages industry wide were up 14% over 1999, with the
highest year end growth since 1985, or as long as I have been in business.
If you
want to try to spin this to be bad news, for the month of December
2000 alone (which was during the worst of the stock market crash),
advertising pages totaled 24,962, which was down 2% from the same
period last year. However, although the number of pages was down 2%,
the actual money generated was $1,584,664,647, or a whopping 3.6%
increase over the same period last year. This means that although
the number of total pages was down, the revenue that it pulled in
was up.
Can each
of you say this about the total revenue for your own businesses? That
you're working less, yet making more? Its hard to accept the magazines
crying poor when the numbers reveal that despite pages being down,
they are still pulling in more cash. The bottom line is that the mags
had a banner year, and now they're suddenly flipped out because it
looks like they're going to have slightly less than a banner year.
Given that fees for photography are STILL FLAT after many years at
so many publications, its hard to feel sorry for them.
They
clearly have the cash to pay us, they just would rather not part with
it. And as long as there are photographers that will accept the low
fees they offer, they have zero incentive to pay more.
According
to Bacon's Magazine Directory and Media Start figures, the following
is a comparison between ad page rate in 10/99 as compared to 1/01
for a full page ad
|
10/1999 |
1/2001 |
Change |
| Time |
$121,000 |
$192,000 |
up
58%, photo fees unchanged |
| Newsweek |
$103,405 |
$174.075 |
up
68%, photo fees unchanged |
| People
Weekly |
$109,000 |
$152,000 |
up
39%, photo fees unchanged |
| Conde
Naste Traveler |
$39,100 |
$59,150 |
up
51%, photo fees unchanged |
| Business
Week |
$75,300 |
$92,500 |
up
23%, photo fees unchanged |
| US
News |
$66,062 |
$116,282 |
up
76%, photo fees unchanged |
| Nat'l
Geographic |
$158,810 |
$176,075 |
up
11%, photo fees unchanged |
I invite
you all to draw your own conclusions.
Have
the courage to ask for what you're worth. Arm yourself with the data
about what they are making, and ask some questions about your business
and theirs. In my experience, many photo editors are not aware of
the kinds of numbers listed above. We need to educate them, as well
as ourselves, and have the courage to ask our clients for the same
thing that they ask of their clients. The word NO is powerful. Don't
be afraid to use it.
Best,
Paula
Lerner
As a
photographer, your work is part of the content that brings readers
to these magazines and thus allows them to charge higher ad page rates.
Know your worth!
Rocky
Kneten
ASMP
Houston
Please
feel free to pass this on to other photographers.
